Sebastian Aho scored the overtime-winning goal to propel the Hurricanes past the Canadiens in Game 3 by a score of 3-2, putting the Hurricanes up 2-1 in the series.
Early in the first, Shayne Gostisbehere activated from the point and buried a wrister to make it 1-0, the third time in a row Carolina has opened the scoring this series. Montreal got caught puck watching on the play — a mistake they can’t make against a Hurricanes team whose defense likes to join the play.
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The Canadiens finally got their forecheck going thanks to the hard work of Ivan Demidov and Alex Newhook, leading to their first sustained zone time. Demidov found Mike Matheson at the point, who buried it to make it 1-1.
Tonight was the first home conference finals game with fans since May 24, 1993, and the atmosphere certainly matched the occasion.
Taylor Hall continued the trend of hectic first periods, breaking the tie 54 seconds after the Matheson tally and putting the Hurricanes up 2-1.
Lane Hutson brought the Bell Center back to life early in the second, burying a two-on-one tap-in assisted by Cole Caufield. The play was misread by Jaccob Slavin, who got caught flat-footed at the blue line while shorthanded.
Noah Dobson appeared to give the Canadiens their first lead of the game, but it was determined that Caufield was offsides prior to the goal.
Jakub Dobeš stood tall in the third to drag the Canadiens to overtime, with Carolina outshooting them 7-1.
The Hurricanes dominated the shot clock through the first 60 minutes, leading 32-12, but that didn’t paint an accurate picture of the game. A majority of Carolina’s shots came from the outside, while Montreal managed to penetrate the middle for higher-quality chances despite having fewer shots.
Nick Suzuki had the puck on his stick with a chance to end the game at the start of overtime, but Frederik Andersen stood tall on the breakaway.
Other than the Suzuki chance, it was all Carolina in overtime, with their neutral-zone structure preventing Montreal from any easy entries.
That pressure built up until Andrei Svechnikov fired a wrister through traffic, which Aho tipped past Dobeš to end the game.
Game 4 will be in Montreal on Wednesday.
